Heavy metal was born in the '70s when bands began focusing on the louder, faster, and more aggressive aspects of rock 'n' roll. Classic songs like The Beatles' "Helter Skelter" and The Kinks' "You Really Got Me" are the precursors to the genre, with their distorted guitar riffs and lyrics explicitly addressing occult and sexual themes. The aggressive attitude, extended solos, and punishing volumes of various other late '60s rock icons, including Jimi Hendrix, Cream, Deep Purple, Blue Cheer, and The Who, further established the template. But metal's true prototypes came in the early '70s, in the form of Led Zeppelin's screamy amplified blues-rock and Black Sabbath's doomy, medicated sonic repetition. Other bands of that era contributed other essential ingredients: Blue Oyster Cult and Steppenwolf provided a quasi-mystical obsession with death and black magic, while Kiss and Alice Cooper established a darkly flamboyant visual identity. Heavy metal has always focused on image, and metal fans in turn have always visually identified with each other and the bands they adore, from the denim and leather aesthetic of '70s proto-metal bands to the extravagant androgyny of the '80s pop-metal scene. Mainstream metal progressed from its nascent blues-derived roots in the '70s through a mid-'80s "new wave of British heavy metal" to its more pop-inflected position of global dominance in the late '80s before giving way to grunge and the diffuse alternative category in the '90s, all the while spawning new and more extreme subgenres. Thoughout its history, the focus has always remained squarely on the darker side of volume, precision, and aggression.Notable Artists: Motorhead, Iron Maiden, Pantera, Alice Cooper, Black Sabbath